Question 1

Can you really be hypnotized?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Hypnosis is a natural state of mind that occurs in most people on a regular basis.

Many people associate hypnosis with a state of deep relaxation, but the process of hypnosis does not have to involve relaxation at all! In fact, one way to induce hypnotic trance is by using a "shock induction", which uses the startle reflex to make the mind open the suggestion.

If you have ever watched a stage hypnosis show and seen the hypnotist shout "SLEEP!" while yanking the arm of a subject, who then collapses in a heap, you have witnessed a shock induction.

Most people can be hypnotized. In general, if you have at least normal intelligence and even a bit of imagination, then you can too.

The process may vary between stage hypnosis and clinical hypnosis, but the end result is the same, a state of heightened suggestibility where hypnotic suggestions bypass the critical faculty and subconscious mind / unconscious mind act upon them.

For most people, the experience of hypnosis is profound. Your heart rate drops and smooths out and your brain activity settles into something closer to an active sleep state than full wakefulness. For many of us, the closest state we have to compare to in daily life is that of "lucid dreaming'. Of course, the hypnotized subject remains in complete control and has an awareness of what is going on around them at all times.

If you'd like to experience hypnosis, reach out to your local hypnotist! We LOVE what we do. You don't need to be seeking some type of behavioral therapy, or need to change something in everyday life. Most of us are always looking for a new hypnotic subject and would be more than happy to gve you a demonstration of the power of your subconscious mind / unconscious mind.

Question 2

Are the people on stage under the control of the hypnotist?

Accepted Answer

No they are not under any control but their own. In fact, you have probably seen someone during a stage show who simply didn't react to some skit, so the hypnotist moved on to others. That person might not have felt like doing what was suggested, might have objected to the content or might simply have been feeling really good at the moment and chose to ignore the hypnotist. In hypnosis, you don't relinquish control, you just remove the barriers that were previously in place that prevented you from "going all in" with what you are imagining.

What you see during a stage show is a group of people playing "make-believe" with an intensity that you would not understand unless you had experienced it. The altered state that they have entered allows them to ignore distractions, remove all traces of being self-conscious, and to "get lost" in the suggestions they are recieving. To make them real. If you have seen children playing and seen the intensity with which they can visualize the environment and components of what they are doing, you might realize it's been a while since you have imagined something that vividly.

As adults, we forget how much fun it was to imagine that the ground beneath the monkey bars is "lava" and to do so with such focus that there's no way we are going to be the first to drop. The people on stage have rediscovered how much imagination and play can be.

That is one of the greatest powers of hypnosis!

Question 3

What is "Street Hypnosis"?

Accepted Answer

Hypnosis has been around for thousands of years (that we have a record of). For much of that time, it was only practiced in a very formal, ritualized fashion. In the past 100 years, it started out as a medical treatment, then diverged from that. From there it split into hypnotherapy and stage hypnosis, both of which were pretty rigidly defined and predictable.

But over the last decade or so, a new generation of hypnotists has broken out of those boxes and taken hypnosis to a new and completely uncontrolled environment, the "street". In much the same way you might see a magician performing in a park, these practitioners of street hypnosis perform with no stage and no rehearsal. It's new, fresh and often unpredictable.

Question 4

Where can I experience "street" hypnosis?

Accepted Answer

In person, it's like running across a musician or a street magician. Fairs and festivals, boardwalks, events, beaches, malls and other public places are becoming regular haunts for street hypnotists.

Barring running across a street hypnotist in person, YouTube has a lot of videos. As with anything on YouTube, some are great, some are interesting, some are fake and some are completely inexplicable.

Can you really be hypnotized?

Are the people on stage under the control of the hypnotist?

What is "Street Hypnosis"?

Where can I experience "street" hypnosis?

Visit Hypnotechs.com

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